‎ “Israel Antiquities Authority workers found ‎it hard to restrain themselves as the ‎complete mosaic floor began to emerge at ‎the site of their archeological salvage ‎operations in southern Israel.‎ They realized they were facing a site over ‎‎1,500 years old, and that they had ‎discovered a Byzantine mosaic from ‎between the 4th and 6th centuries CE, ‎during salvage operations ahead of the ‎construction of an intersection on a main ‎highway in the Negev – but what emerged ‎from the earth surpassed their ‎expectations…‎
In recent years, the Israel Antiquities ‎Authority has discovered numerous ‎Byzantine-period sites in the Negev ‎desert, including – in addition to churches ‎‎– synagogues from the same period, built ‎beside the churches. It is known that ‎several synagogues from the Byzantine ‎and early Islamic periods exist in ‎Palestine, including the Shahwan ‎Synagogue (i.e., the Shalom Al-Yisrael ‎Synagogue) in Jericho. The Israeli ‎‎[Antiquities] Authority’s efforts to search ‎for an ancient Jewish history have ‎resulted in nothing more than the ‎discovery of these synagogues – whose ‎existence reflects, according to all ‎opinions, what can be described as ‎tolerance during the period of transition ‎between the end of Byzantine rule and ‎the arrival of the Muslim Arabs in ‎Palestine.…‎
The [founding] father of the State of Israel, ‎David Ben Gurion, dreamed of turning the ‎Negev desert into a paradise in which ‎Jews would live; therefore, the Zionist ‎gangs embarked on an ethnic cleansing ‎operation which included most of the ‎Arabs. The Israeli authorities treated those ‎who remained like Indians, concentrating ‎them on special ‘reservations.’ Every ‎community outside the reservations was ‎considered ‘illegal…’‎
Every conqueror and invader who ‎reached this desert either regarded it ‎differently (i.e., saw its potential) – as did, ‎for example, the Nabateans, who built a ‎series of forts on the Incense and Spice ‎route…– or neglected it, allowing its tribes ‎to either fight or make peace with each ‎other, as the Ottomans did, or tried to take ‎control of it, as the new occupiers are ‎doing.”‎